Short communication: investigating the effect of saffron (Crocus sativus L.) nano-sizing on its colour extraction efficiency: a preliminary study.

This study investigated the effect of saffron nano-sizing on its the colour extraction yield. The whole stigma was ball-milled at three different times (10, 20 and 100 h), immediately or with a 24 h delay was submitted to absorption test, and then the colour extraction efficiency was determined. When stigma was milled for 100 h, its particle size was reduced to less than 20 nm, as shown by SEM and TEM images, and its extraction efficiency was considerably increased by 19.